I refused the Garda truck and they gave me a truck whose last line in the DVIR was "DO NOT DRIVE THIS TRUCK WE HAVE BEEN INHALING ANTIFREEZE ALL DAY"

Thometra Allsmiles Robinson - Garda Georgia: Im so proud you guys!!!! I organized at my branch 2yrs ago and Im so thankful that the word is getting out! GREAT JOB!

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE PROBLEMS YOUR HAVING AT GARDA

The corporation neglects the driver/messengers here. I see all of us driver messengers risking life of course to make this company money, but I see a "labor agreement" that offers no protection to employees and it appears it only really benefits the company the overtime issue of non payment of overtime after 50 hours is desighned proof of benefiting the corporation, the motor carriers act does allow this if you are operating a vehicle over 100001 pounds, but again we could be killed while working this ie accident or robery so it seems very uninterested in your safety and ability to provide for your family DONT schedule us for overtime unless requested! They have routes that are desighned for over 8 hours and they want you to not take a lunch or breaks the contract says to call to take a lunch so the company can Deduct your lunch, so your on the truck after 8 hours or within 8 hours, you want lunch, naturaly, and you call the branch and inform them, get your fast food crap thats no good for you and reboard and secure your truck and they DEDUCT your lunch? Isnt that FREE security for the company and are they already makeing this deduction??? I cant wait for an election!!

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE PROBLEMS YOUR HAVING AT GARDA

My major concerns are with the trucks. Trucks barely have air conditioning. Temperatures in my cab reached 109*F a few days this summer. The garda peer committee helped us out by providing us with 12V fans. They also bought me storage bins to help sort my pickups.

My current truck has very loose steering and the air conditioner does not work after 5 hours on the road (I am normally on the road for 10-13). The messenger door is broken and is difficult to operate. This means I spend more time outside of the truck exposed while simply trying to get the door open. The rear door latch does not lock. I was provided with a padlock but somebody in the company stole it. There is also a nail in the tire that they have not fixed. My previous truck's tire was near failure (serious wear marks on the sides) and I was told by management and the "mechanic" (he is not a real mechanic) to just drive it. I refused the Garda truck and they gave me a truck whose last line in the DVIR was "DO NOT DRIVE THIS TRUCK WE HAVE BEEN INHALING ANTIFREEZE ALL DAY" After a 3-hour debacle with management trying to get me to take one of the two unsafe vehicles they took my partner away and sent a driver to drive the truck who did not care about the safety issues.

My route is too long. I barely make the deadlines when I am with my regularly scheduled partner (who is an expert at this particular run) and when he is absent it is nearly impossible to achieve perfection with a substitute.

Stop and shop policy makes us wait behind the customer service desk where we regularly have to scan bags of $20,000-$40,000 in cash in plain view in front of customers. This is a serious security issue and Garda needs to work with Stop and Shop to allow us into their cash office so we can keep the currency hidden from prying eyes.

"This just show that Garda does not care for its employees or there customers deposits at all the only thing Garda cares for is Garda bottom line".

Another GARDA SECURITY COMPLAINT:

I fell ill over the weekend and had to call in monday to see a doctor. Found out I have some type of virus in my lungs and was given a note by the doctor not to go into work untill wednesday. I called my branch and talked to my branch mananger only to find out the personal time off of 48 hours that is in our labor agreement can not be used at all for sick time. so I called our human resources to be told the same thing so my question to them was how do we use our personal time off? we have to have it approved by managment two weeks in advance was the answer I got. so then I asked our human resources what kind of sick pay do we have? the answer I was given was none there is no sick pay. so what this tells me is at Garda if an employee falls sick and has to miss work Garda willl not pay that employee. to put it another way Garda employees will fall short on there bills if they get sick. the only way we get our money to pay our bills for our familys is to work when we are sick. we work in an environment were we put our lives on the line going out of locations in hot and cold all day touching deposits that are covered in germs but when we get sick Garda offers us nothing. we have to continue to put ourselves in danger when we are not physically able to defend ourselvs from an outside attack. this just show that Garda does not care for its employees or there customers deposits at all the only thing Garda cares for is Garda bottom line.

Due to FEAR and Retaliation From Garda Cash Logistics This Garda Security Driver / Messengers Identity was withheld.

With our campaign only 3 weeks old Garda Security begins its Union-Busting Campaign by having Chris Jamroz President and Chief Operating Officer at Garda Cash Logistics supposedly writing a letter to its 7500 employees explaining why Garda DON'T need to Unionize. In addition to the Union-Busting letters below, Garda Security also hired Projections Inc to produce a Union-Busting website for Garda employees to view. Many of the statements on Projections Inc / Garda's website are misleading with misrepresentation of facts while other parts of this Projections Inc / Garda Security Union-Busting website are filled with outright lies. Despite Garda Security - Garda Cash Logistics Union-Busting tactics we will continue to report the real problems Garda Security messengers and drivers face each day.

The purpose of this letter is to bring to light serious violations of ethical standards, company policies, DOT regulations and State law that have been committed by the Garda security management at the Bowie, MD Branch. It is the common belief of the employee’s of this facility that the current management is ill-suited for their respective positions as they routinely demonstrate a lack of respect for employees, a general abuse of the authority inherent in their positions and a disregard for the safety and well being of their employees. Although a complete list of witnessed transgressions would be impractical in this format, it is necessary for illustration purposes to recap a sampling of some of the more serious violations committed.

********took charge of the facility as the Branch Manager in December of last year. Shortly thereafter, without warning, he unlawfully destroyed and discarded the personal locks affixed to employee’s lockers, emptied said lockers and left the contents unsecured in the facility break room, discarding some personal property in the process. This quickly demonstrated a lack of respect for the employee’s under his charge. Mr****** has hired premise guards for the facility, as new hires with no training or weapons experience, he issued them company handguns and demanded they carry them in performance of their duties despite the fact that these guards are not licensed to carry these weapons and doing so is a violation of MD state handgun law and additionally is contrary to a safe working environment to allow dangerous implements to be handled by individuals without the safety training or qualifications to do so. Mr. ****** routinely instructs employees to operate vehicles that are in unsafe operating condition, including vehicles with defective safety restraints, serious fluid leaks, and even one vehicle that has been missing the front bumper for months. As a demonstration of questionable ethical standards, Mr. *****and the Assistant Branch Manager, ********, held a conversation in the presence of multiple employees in which Ms. *******made a statement that she would like to fire the entire vault staff and start over. When these comments were reported to the vault staff, and members of the vault staff questioned the managers about it, both of them denied the statements, despite witnesses to the conversation and despite the fact that proven dishonesty is grounds for termination. It should also be noted that three members of the vault staff were later terminated for reasons relating to a relatively minor policy infraction regarding horseplay, presumably indicating that the managers in fact followed through on the intent of their conversation. In another instance of policy violation and questionable ethics, Mr. *******issued instructions and had employees sign statements indicating that they would not “drive and hop,” that is that a single employee would not function as both the driver and messenger on a route. Only weeks later due to scheduling issues management instructed an employee to violate this policy under threat of disciplinary action for insubordination. This act was clearly unethical, unsafe and blatantly hypocritical. As a final example of questionable activity, though many more could be provided, the Assistant Manager has submitted a doctor’s note that indicates that she is not fit to work on the trucks in any capacity. With these physical restrictions in effect she has left work early and informed employees that she is off to play softball, which would clearly require more physical exertion than simply driving a truck, and frankly borders on fraud.

Again these are merely examples of the types of behaviors that take place routinely at this facility which threaten safety in the workplace and make for a hostile environment. In response it would be prudent to at the very least send these managers to receive training in ethics and general management practices as well as transfer them to other facilities as they would be unlikely to ever regain the respect they have lost in their leadership positions in this branch. If these actions are not possible, then it may be appropriate for these managers to sever ties with this company.